


The Hanged Man

by rhiannonsgypsy



Category: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV 2018)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-22
Updated: 2019-01-22
Packaged: 2019-10-14 17:19:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17512724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhiannonsgypsy/pseuds/rhiannonsgypsy
Summary: The Hanged Man has come to reverse life-altering spells, enchantments, hexes, or curses that the Dark Lord no longer approves of. Tonight, when he rides through Greendale, he summons both Zelda Spellman and Faustus Blackwood - the High Priest and his devoted disciple. Neither had any way of knowing what for, but they suspected that it all had to do with each other.





	1. Chapter 1

"Who was that calling, Zelds?" Hilda shouted from across the parlor after Zelda had hung up the old rotary phone in the hall, assuming that it was likely a customer calling with tragic news. When she got no answer from her elder sister, Hilda put down the playing cards that she'd been holding and cast a wary look at her young niece, who sat across from her. "Zelda?" Hilda tried again, and now the rest of the room looked towards the threshold where Zelda appeared, looking even paler than usual.

"What's happened, Auntie Zee?" Ambrose stood, his voice with a concerned edge to it.

"That..." Zelda began, though her words wavered uncharacteristically, "... that was Father Blackwood."

"Is something wrong?" Sabrina asked innocently, still too young to realize just how  _wrong_ something really could be.

"The," her aunt began to answer, but her voice was a mere whisper. She cleared her throat and tilted her chin up, regaining that harsh bit of confidence that she'd always had, "the Hanged Man will be venturing into Greendale at midnight."

Hilda gasped deeply and Ambrose dropped his entire hand of cards onto the floor. "The  _Hanged Man?"_ Hilda managed to choke out, sure that she'd misheard her sister. But, she knew better than that. Zelda never misspoke and she  _certainly_ never made jokes when it came to their dark religion.

Zelda nodded and shut her eyes in an attempt to regain the balance that she'd lost. Sabrina looked around her relatives in confusion, "Who's that?" She spoke with a bit of naivety to her young voice.

Upon hearing her inquiry, Zelda's eyes snapped towards her niece in disapproval. " _Really_ , Sabrina, have you learned  _nothing_ at the Academy?"

Hilda put a hand on Sabrina's shoulder to make up for her sister's harshness. "The Hanged Man, lamb, he's the closest being to the Dark Lord himself." Sabrina clearly remained confused, so Hilda looked to Zelda to offer a better explanation.

"He's the Dark Lords most unholy messenger." Zelda's voice remained bitter, she was on edge about the entire situation.

"I thought... isn't the _High Priest_ the Dark Lord's messenger?" Sabrina questioned, she'd never even heard of the  _Hanged Man_ until now.

"Father Blackwood is the preacher of the Dark Lord's sermon. He's here to keep us all in line on Earth. The Hanged Man resides with Satan himself in the Underworld, his word comes straight from the mouth of the Dark Lord." Zelda clarified, taking a drag of her always lit cigarette.

"So, he's... he's more powerful than Father Blackwood?"

Hilda and Ambrose chuckled, finding their young housemate's ignorance endearing more than anything. "Tenfold, Sabrina." Zelda interjected, "The Dark Lord Satan is the only one more powerful than the Hanged Man."

"And  _why_ is he coming to Greendale, tonight?"

"Well," Hilda took over as Zelda began to pace nervously, lingering in the hallway, "the Hanged Man is sent up to Earth per Satan's request. He has access to the full realm of dark arts and it's his job essentially to reverse any wrongdoings in the name of the Dark Lord."

Sabrina shook her head, all that witchy lingo seemed to be bouncing right off of her. "Wait, so...  _what?"_

"He appears at midnight and summons forth certain witches and warlocks to perform cleanses, when necessary. He undoes the dark magic that has been cast against their souls."

"And why does he do that?"

"It's the Dark Lord's will, Sabrina. We don't ask why." Hilda shook her head, clearly fearful.

"Has someone been summoned, Auntie Zee?" Ambrose lowered his eyebrows, no one from the Spellman family had ever been summoned by the Hanged Man before.

The room became quiet as they awaited her response. Zelda took in a deep breath and looked towards her nephew, clearly attempting to remain sturdy for the sake of her family. "In fact, Ambrose,  _I_ have been summoned."

" _You_ _?"_ Hilda gasped, that came as a surprise to her. For Sabrina, Ambrose, or even herself to be summoned by the Dark Lord would make sense to her. But Zelda had  _always_ been careful with respect to the dark arts, her summoning was completely uncharacteristic. "What ever  _for,_ sister?"

Zelda took another drag from her cigarette, "I haven't a clue." That was the truth. Clearly, some kind of black magic was being used against her, and it had been for  _decades_. That was when the Hanged Man tended to intervene. But, what kind of spell or curse it was, as well as  _who_ had cast it, she hadn't the faintest of ideas.


	2. The Summoning

The chapel was dark and damp and silent.

Only a select few of the coven had been summoned that evening, as was usually the case when the Hanged Man came to do his bidding. Zelda was horrified to find herself the very last to arrive. She'd always been nothing if not punctual, and it was a telling sign of just how desperate times were getting in her household. She was living with a house-arrested warlock, an ex-communicate of the Church of Night, and a half-mortal. She was the last purely dark witch in the Spellman house, and even she found herself slipping away from the dark arts what with all of her niece, nephew, and sister's antics. She knew full well that her credibility with Father Blackwood was running low, and she suspected that her tardiness had likely put him on edge.

The High Priest was required to attend each and every summoning of the Hanged Man as part of his unholy duties, but Zelda knew him to always grow even harsher and filled with even more tension during these times. It was stressful for him, to know that the Dark Lord himself had deemed certain members of  _his_ coven as needing cleansing that could not be fulfilled by Faustus himself. He felt as though his authority was being tested, and Zelda knew just how much the man  _despised_ that.

And she hated to admit for the sake of her own pride, that she was nervous knowing that he would be there. Had it been because he was her High Priest and she had no intentions of failing him, that would have been perfectly suitable and she'd have no problem at all admitting to that particular weakness. But, that wasn't all. Her anxiety towards him came from a far more personal place deep within her soul, a place where she did not see him as her High Priest, but as Faustus Blackwood - a man that she'd known practically her whole life. A man who could still make her heart beat out of her chest when she pictured the two of them alone together just as they had been so many times before.

Nonetheless, she wasn't surprised to see him there, and she certainly wasn't surprised to see his vexed state given the circumstances. Faustus had been lingering near the entrance to the chapel and took a few harsh steps towards her as Zelda stepped calmly through the door. "Cutting it a little  _close,_ are we,  _Zelda?"_ He snarled, each word sharper than the last.

Zelda lowered her eyebrows, warlocks could be far more melodramatic than witches even on their worst days. She stepped in front of him, close enough to see the fear-induced anger behind his blue eyes, and she pulled off the black gloves that she'd been wearing. "Oh, for Satan's  _sake,_ Faustus." Her words came out calmer than she'd been expecting. She supposed it was true that when one person grew nervous and filled with panic, the other became filled with a sense of inappropriate relaxation. "It's barely quarter to midnight, I'm  _plenty_ early." She finished with a scoff, unbuttoning her woolen black coat If she was stuck here in unfavourable circumstances for the night, she was at least going to make herself comfortable, and she'd suggest that the intense man before her do the same.

"You think this is all something to be taken  _lightly?"_ Faustus snapped, towering over her in a way that should have made her feel inferiorly intimidated, but did not. She knew him far too well, she was familiar with his tricks by now, and they rarely worked on her anymore. "A visitation by the  _Hanged Man_ is no laughing matter, Zelda."

She peered up at him incredulously, "If you insist on remaining  _this_ uptight, Faustus, it's going to be a  _very_ long night." Hearing her words, he did manage to release a bit of tension that he'd been holding in his shoulders as the intense look on his severe face also faded. She had such a way of reminding him that they were just two people, a witch and a warlock, and that the world did not always reside on their shoulders. Zelda pursed her lips and reached her hands up towards his neck, fiddling carelessly with the white fabric of his necktie. "You might consider loosening your cravat just a hint, otherwise you'll suffocate yourself." She was being cheeky, and Faustus nearly rolled his eyes. Recently, it was as if the two of them had been taken back in time. Back to their youthful years at the Academy that had been spent battling each other for the top marks in their classes during the day and luring the other into their beds after nightfall.

They'd been filled with youthful adrenaline back in the day, with the very world at their feet. And there was no matter of who was High Priest and who was merely a Sister of the Night, they were simply Faustus and Zelda - two students both doing exceptionally well in all their classes. She was the popular, beautiful teenage witch that ruled the Academy and harrowed the life out of whomever she could sink her perfectly manicured claws into and he was the smooth talking, devilishly handsome teenage warlock who was slowly working his way towards becoming a higher member of their coven.

The two of them ran around that Academy fueled by their own juvenile desires that forced their paths together over and over again. When the two of them were together - be it academically or physically - they were always at their best. The spark that the two shared was unlike anything either had counted on experiencing, but it fulfilled them in ways that they didn't know they could be fulfilled. They were playful together, they pushed each other, their relationship - if it could even be called that - was daring and filled with temptation. But, it went on for  _years_ , without fully labeling it. But, those two particular immortals were not keen on sentimentality,  _especially_ if it truly was present. Yes, the term  _love_ could have been thrown around between the two of them, and it wouldn't have been a lie. But it never was, for that was perfectly uncharacteristic.

Besides, their intense affair ended when Faustus went on the become the High Priest and Zelda left for Europe to study abroad after graduating from the Academy. They'd both always put the dark arts before anything else in their life, they knew full well that when it came down to it, they had to think of their academic future before their romantic feelings, it was easier that way. Of course, they did come crawling back to each other many a time over the course of the decades, as it was only natural, and their feelings never seemed to fade.

But, recently, they'd spent far too many years apart. Zelda had been busy with her family whereas Faustus had been busy with his duties as the High Priest, and they didn't quite have time for a reconciliation in the form of a rekindling. Besides, Faustus' wife asked for nothing from him but fidelity, and the least he could do was grant her that, even if his heart might always remain with another. Over the years, Zelda seemed to have forgotten the way she used to tease and taunt him, the way that she used to play with him and the way that it felt to lure him to her. She'd clearly begun to think of him merely as her High Priest once more, and she was ever so careful about making him proud. Faustus enjoyed it, as he enjoyed it when anyone worshiped him in the way that she did, but he may have secretly been longing for their past carelessness.

Ever since that one night when she'd asked him to draw out a Satanic confession that had ended in them sharing a passionate kiss, things for Faustus and Zelda were slowly but surely reverting back to the way that things once were. Sleeping together frequently had transported back to simpler times, and Zelda was beginning to forget herself and treat him as casually as she once had.

Much to his own irritation, Faustus now found himself softening his eyes as she somewhat miraculously managed to soothe him with her mere proximity. He was the  _High Priest_ of the Church of Night, he certainly  _shouldn't_ have been reduced to the likes of melted honey around a  _woman_ of all things. Clearing his throat and looking away from her, Faustus glanced around the room as he spoke. "You're right." He whispered so faintly to himself that she nearly didn't hear him. "Zelda, I -" he began, but faltered when he met her inquisitive eyes once more.

"What is it?" She urged, fearing that he might leave his sentence unfinished.

"I'm not here to oversee the Hanged Man's visit." He finished vaguely, tugging at his cravat just as she'd suggested earlier.

"You're not?" She spoke in a low voice, she didn't quite understand what he was saying.

"No, I'm not." He shook his head, tilting his view downwards to meet hers, "I've been summoned.

Zelda let her mouth drop open ever so slightly in surprise as she took a step backwards, "You  _have?"_

"There is something  _heavy_ upon me, Zelda. Something so heavy that the Dark Lord feels needs to be cleansed. That is why I'm here." Faustus stepped away from her and changed his air, clearly about to once again take on the role of High Priest and nothing else, returning to his coven. "Just like you." He finished with an empty voice, and walked away from her to stand at the front of the room to wait for the Hanged Man's arrival.

 


End file.
